1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material and, more particularly, to a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material having a high color reproduction and which is improved in storage stability and resistance to pressure after photographing.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is conventionally known to use an interlayer inhibiting effect as a means of improving the color reproduction of color photographic light-sensitive materials. In the case of a color negative sensitive material, by giving a development inhibiting effect from a green-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer (to be also referred to as a green-sensitive layer hereinafter) to a red-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer (to be also referred to as a red-sensitive layer hereinafter), it is possible to suppress the degree of color generation of the red-sensitive layer upon white-light exposure to be lower than that upon red-light exposure. In a color negative paper system, the gradation is so balanced that gray is reproduced on a color print when the system is exposed to white light. For this reason, an interimage effect (also called an interlayer effect) gives rise to cyan color generation at a higher density upon red exposure than upon gray exposure. This makes it possible to provide a higher-saturation red reproduction with a suppressed cyan color generation on a print. Likewise, a development inhibiting effect from a red-sensitive layer to a green-sensitive layer gives rise to green reproduction with a high saturation.
When the saturations of the primary colors, red, green, and blue, are increased by using these methods, the hues of colors from yellow to cyan green cannot be reproduced faithfully. A technique described in JP-A-61-34541 ("JP-A" means Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application) has been proposed as a countermeasure against this problem. The purpose of this technique is to achieve a vivid, faithful color reproduction by using a silver halide color light-sensitive material having on a support at least one blue-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer (hereinafter referred to as the "blue-sensitive layer") containing a yellow coupler, at least one green-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer containing a magenta coupler, and at least one red-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer containing a cyan coupler, wherein the weight-averaged wavelength (.lambda..sub.G) of the spectral sensitivity distribution of the green-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer is 520 nm&lt;.lambda..sub.G .ltoreq.580 nm, the weight-averaged wavelength (.lambda..sub.-R) of the spectral sensitivity distribution of the magnitude of the interlayer effect which the silver halide emulsion layers except for all of the red-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers containing cyan couplers have on the red-sensitive layers over the range of 500 to 600 nm is 500 nm&lt;.lambda..sub.-R .ltoreq.560 nm, and .lambda..sub.G -.lambda..sub.-R .ltoreq.10 nm. The weight-averaged wavelength .lambda..sub.-R of the wavelength distribution of the magnitude of the interlayer effect that the silver halide emulsion layers except for the red-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers have on the red-sensitive layers over the range of 500 to 600 nm is obtained as follows.
(1) First, red-sensitive layers for generating cyan are fogged to some appropriate value with uniform exposure by using a red filter for transmitting a specific wavelength or higher or an interference filter for transmitting only a specific wavelength, so that the red-sensitive layers for generating cyan are sensitized and other layers are not sensitized at a wavelength of 600 nm or higher. PA1 (2) Subsequently, by giving spectral exposure, the development inhibiting interlayer effect of blue-sensitive layers and green-sensitive layers acts on the fogged red-sensitive layers, forming a reversal image (see FIG. 1A). PA1 (3) From this reversal image, the spectral sensitivity distribution S.sub.-R (.lambda.) as a reversal sensitive material is obtained. (S.sub.-R (.lambda.) for a specific wavelength .lambda. is obtained at a relative point from a point a shown in FIG. 1A.) PA1 (4) The barycentric wavelength (.lambda..sub.-R) of the interlayer effect is calculated using Equation (1) below: ##EQU1## PA1 (1) A silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material which comprises, on a support, at least one blue-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer containing a yellow coupler, at least one green-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer containing a magenta coupler, and at least one red-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer containing a cyan coupler, and in which a weight-averaged wavelength (.lambda..sub.-R) of a spectral sensitivity distribution of magnitude of an interimage effect which the silver halide emulsion layers except for all of the red-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers have on the red-sensitive layers over a range of 500 to 600 nm is 500 nm&lt;.lambda..sub.-R &lt;560 nm, and a difference between a weight-averaged wavelength (.lambda..sub.G) of a spectral sensitivity distribution of at least one green-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer and .lambda..sub.-R is .lambda..sub.G -.lambda..sub.-R .gtoreq.10 nm, wherein at least one silver halide emulsion layer having the interimage effect on the red-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers is made contains a silver halide emulsion spectrally sensitized with at least one compound represented by Formula (I) below and at least one compound represented by Formula (II) below: ##STR2## wherein each of R.sub.11 and R.sub.12 represents an alkyl group, Z.sub.11 represents a group of atoms required to form a benzene ring, Z.sub.12 represents a group of atoms required to form a benzothiazole nucleus or a benzoselenazole nucleus, X.sub.11 represents a charge-balancing counterion, and m represents 0 or m being 0 when an intramolecular salt is to be formed; ##STR3## wherein MET represents a group of atoms having a methine dye structure, Q represents a divalent linking group consisting of an atom or an atomic group containing at least one of a carbon atom, a nitrogen atom, a sulfur atom, or an oxygen atom, ST represents a group of atoms having a styryl base structure, each of k.sub.1 and k.sub.3 is an integer of not less than 0, and k.sub.2 is 0 or 1, and PA1 (2) The silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material described in item (1) above, containing a silver halide emulsion spectrally sensitized with at least one compound represented by Formula (I) above, at least one compound represented by Formula (II) above, and at least one compound represented by Formula (III) below: ##STR4## wherein R.sub.21, R.sub.22, Z.sub.21, X.sub.21, and n have the same meanings as R.sub.11, R.sub.12, Z.sub.11, X.sub.11, and m, respectively, in Formula (I), and Z.sub.22 represents a group of atoms required to form a benzoxazole nucleus or a naphthoxazole nucleus.
The barycentric sensitivity wavelength .lambda..sub.G herein mentioned is given by the following equation. ##EQU2##
S.sub.G (.lambda.) is the spectral sensitivity distribution curve of the green-sensitive layer. A relative value of S.sub.G (.lambda.) at the particular wavelength .lambda. is obtained from a point b in FIG. 1B.
JP-A-61-34541 has disclosed a light-sensitive material in which a donor layer having an interlayer effect on red-sensitive layers is arranged in order to obtain the interlayer effect discussed above. A sensitizing dye used in this layer is so designed as to have an effect on the short-wavelength side of green-sensitive layers. Unfortunately, it has become evident that, since the adsorption of the sensitizing dye to silver halide grains is not sufficiently strong, the desorption of the sensitizing dye from silver halide grains takes place if the light-sensitive material is stored under high-temperature, high-humidity conditions, with the result that no satisfactory color reproduction can be obtained.
Monomethinecyanine containing a 2-quinoline skeleton has a maximum value of spectral sensitivity at 520 to 545 nm. However, monomethinecyanine is used in combination with benzoimidazolocarbocyanine or with oxacarbocyanine since a low sensitivity results if monomethinecyanine is used singly (e.g., JP-B-56-24939 ("JP-B" means Examined Published Japanese Patent Application), JP-B-56-38936, JP-B-56-38940, and British Patent 1,219,016). Unfortunately, these methods cannot provide a high color reproduction because the spectral sensitivity region shifts to longer wavelengths.